


Oppressive Darkness

by arysthaeniru



Series: the city is an abyss [4]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Other, crime ring, drug usage mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-11
Updated: 2014-10-11
Packaged: 2018-02-20 17:41:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2437319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arysthaeniru/pseuds/arysthaeniru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Spider and the DataMan exchange some small-talk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Oppressive Darkness

Niou loved the darkness. He loved watching the darkest depths of what humans really could do under duress. Not because he was a sadist, but more because it was like watching a trainwreck: horrifying, but intensely fascinating. Watching people slowly ruin their lives and attempt to crawl their way out of the abyss they had dug for themselves was beyond entrancing, because no person acted in the same way. 

For all of the generalizations and predictions that Yanagi managed to make about how all humans acted the same, Niou honestly had trouble thinking of two people that had taken the exact same path in coping with their problems. 

It was why he’d volunteered for duty over the thickest deepest part of the slums, near the brothels and drug-dens and the places where they gathered with the crudest, cheapest alcohol they could make, in order to drown their sorrows. It meant a lot more work than having taken places that were closer to the higher city, but it was inherently worth it to see their struggles. 

People around here called Niou _The Spider_ , something that made Niou bark with laughter whenever he heard it. He thought it was pretty apt, in the way he beadily watched people and followed their lives through a web and knew pretty much everything that was happening at a time. And when he saw fit, he toyed with them, trapping them inside his elaborate games, before devouring them and leaving them as public evidence of people who had angered him.

Even Yanagi, who also operated in this area, didn’t know quite as much about the people here, as Niou did. Perhaps it was because Yanagi holed himself up inside his house, where Niou walked among the people. Even if people were scared of the Spider, they knew him and talked to him or, at least, talked around him. One thing about wearing red and shiny clothing and looking instantly recognisable, was that it was easier to disguise himself in order to gain information.

After all, people recognised Niou through his white and black long hair, and his flashy red coat. Nobody paid any attention to his face. Which meant that sticking on a wig and wearing a muted brown was the perfect way to get the latest details and hide from the rest of the slum-dwellers. It was more boring than grinning in a certain way and having people trip over their feet to try and not offend him, but it was something of a challenge to disguise himself, when Niou was getting bored. 

Still, disguise or not, one thing that Niou would always be able to see about the residents of this desolate penumbra, was that they didn’t lie to themselves. they were so deeply involved with drugs and sex and death and violence, that most didn’t bother to excuse themselves. there were no lofty cries of a greater purpose, no justification about why they were really being noble and how they shouldn’t be judged, no hiding their deepest darkest sins. The people in the darkness were starkly honest with themselves, they told themselves that they did what they did to survive. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Still, for all of his love of darkness elsewhere, the stark blackness of Yanagi’s house was always something quite different to the festering, dim alleyways of the slums. The darkness of Yanagi’s house was stifling and put Niou on edge, as if it was too silent and too encompassing. Sometimes, Niou wondered whether this atmosphere was just to fuck with him, or whether Yanagi really did have light sensitivity, since he was fairly sure that Yanagi had been a street kid, and no kid could have survived with as bad a light sensitivity problem as Yanagi seemed to have. 

Still, as he strolled his way through the cramped, book-filled house, he spotted a slight flash of brown hair and hopped over a few stacks of self-help books to place his hands over Yanagi’s eyes, as Yanagi crumpled up a piece of paper in his hands. “Guess who?”

Apparently Yanagi wasn’t in the mood for guessing, as Niou instantly got flipped around down to the floor, with a slight ache in his shoulders as the whiplash caught him and Yanagi pushed him down to the floor, his hands in a firm grip around Niou’s throat. Yanagi’s eyes focused on Niou, and his pale cheeks reddened lightly, as he let go of his vicehold on Niou’s neck, and instead got up himself, holding out a hand to Niou.

“Didn’t know you were into kinks like that, Ma~ster. Would have brought my cuffs if you’d told me.” he teased, to push away his annoyance at being so easily disarmed by Yanagi. He was supposed to be good at street fighting, but for all that Yanagi looked like a fucking stick, he was just as strong as Sanada.

“You startled me.” was Yanagi’s only response as he pulled up Niou, and dropped the other’s hand, as he strode away to his kitchen. 

Niou’s eyes fluttered to Yanagi’s tired eyes and the tension in his shoulders, under the slightly rumpled grey shirt he wore. “Something’s got you on edge.” he commented, as he shoved his hands into his pockets, following Yanagi into Yanagi’s small, and cramp kitchen. 

“There have been some threats from our resident addicts, who are quite irritated with the hike in prices, and naturally blame me instead of the people who make the opium.” Yanagi said, irritation lacing his voice, as he reached for some tea leaves from his shelf, brushing past niou’s unhelpful extra limbs to heat the kettle. “There are rumours that they would target me. My house is not exactly the most protected as you seem insistent on proving with your every visit. It would be easy for someone to assassinate me if they wished.”

It was really weird to see Yanagi being outwardly affected by anything, and a couple of druggies would hardly scare the Master of the whole crime ring, into the point where he didn’t look composed. He was almost as anal about appearances as Yagyuu was, which was why this whole affair was definitely larger than what Yanagi was disclosing. “Just hire a couple of the street kids to stand guard outside and only let the people you want in.” said Niou, with a dismissive shrug.

“They would just let in anyone wearing black and red. It’s easy for an assassin to wear that.” said Yanagi, with a slight roll of his eyes. 

“You really think that druggies are gonna be that coordinated, data-man?” asked Niou, with an amused look, as he shook out his hair, with a grin. “I think you’re overestimating their ability to anything but flop around like a buncha rag dolls.”

“Those who are on opium, less movement is the general pattern of behaviour. But those on LSD and other hallucinogens are dangerous, because they are unpredictable.” said Yanagi, as the kettle boiled, and he poured enough for two cups. Niou had never been so fond of tea, but he always drunk it whenever he came to visit Yanagi. Something like respect for Yanagi did manage to do from inside his cubbyhole. 

“Even for the great and mighty data master?” asked Niou, with a quirk of his eyebrows and Yanagi just smirked, as he took a deep sip from the cup.

“I have more of a guess than most people do, but even so, it’s difficult to predict.” Yanagi, said, in a tone that brooked no further discussion. Niou lapsed into silence, as he swilled the tea leaves around his cup, not looking at Yanagi as he concentrated on the silence. 

It was like nothing was alive inside Yanagi’s house, except them, that was the weird thing. Niou was used to the ambient noise of the city and the people and the trains and factories, churning away twenty-four-seven, with the predictable buzz of chatter that filled every pore of his skin. Yanagi’s house was silence, pure silence, something quite scary, in its own way. 

“You’re not here for a social visit.” stated Yanagi, carefully, as his own teacup collided with the sink, with a little more noise than Niou had been expecting. It drew him away from the reflections on silence and he smirked, dryly. Yanagi was far better at tolerating small-talk than Sanada was, but only Yukimura was able to act like time barely mattered in the grand scheme of things, while still getting the maximum time efficiency from his conversations. 

“Guess who we found?” he drawled, with a slight lick of his lips. 

“The man who has been leaking our information to the police.” said Yanagi, boredly and Niou narrowed his eyes at Yanagi. Gosh, it was far more fun to play guessing games with the Bratling, who always played along, or Marui, who came up with outlandish guesses that were the furthest from the answer, but hilarious. Yanagi was absolutely no fun. 

“Woman actually. But yeah.” said Niou, with a sigh, as he finally took a cip from his cup and almost scalded his tongue. Fuck, how had the data-master taken direct gulps from the water before this point?

Yanagi’s eyebrows rose and he actually looked fairly surprised. Had Yanagi just had a lucky guess for once, instead of being twenty-six steps ahead of Niou? “How did you know it was a woman?” asked Yanagi, with a slightly owlish look. 

Niou grinned as he tipped the contents of the cup down the drain, and watched the steam curl up from the metal. “We caught her. Get up to speed, Yanagi.”

The data master rolled his eyes, with an amused smile. “That is to say, you didn’t know she was a female until you caught her. Which means that you used bait to get her out of hiding. You spread rumours to several people and saw which one the government picked up on?”

Ah, there was the data master he knew. “Bait and switch, yeap.” said Niou, with a grin. “But not like that.” Rumours and whispers, while fun to watch happen, were just too slow to deal with someone as dangerous as a mole and just not Niou’s style. 

Yanagi’s face was blank, but Niou knew that he was absorbed in the challenge of trying to figure out how Niou’s mind worked and how to truly try to anticipate him. “So, you created a situation that only a government agent would know to avoid?” asked Yanagi, carefully, as his fingers steepled together. “Something innocuous but debilitating, that someone would want to avoid...”

His eyes cleared and he tilted his head back, with a light smile playing at his lips. “The recent outbreak in food poisoning?” he asked, with a tone that was pretty much Yanagi convinced of his own truth. “How ingenious and simple.”

Niou’s hands laced around around his head, with a cheerful grin. It was nice to have someone else understand how much planning it took to set up something like that. “Puri.” he said, as he clicked his heel against Yanagi’s floor. “Easier than you’d think.”

“With your connections, I can understand that.” said Yanagi, with a slightly amused smile, allowing Niou his small victory. “I no longer have to write my reports in triple code? Double code is enough?”

“Yeah, sounds good.” said Niou, with a nod. “Thought you might want in on the interrogation though. Why leave all the fun to Akaya, ya know?” he said, with a light grin. 

Yanagi’s eyes narrowed in contemplation and his shoulders tensed, before he shook his head marginally. Niou tilted his head slightly. That was unexpected. Usually Yanagi followed these little rules, and one of them was not to miss out on important information. If a government agent was spilling her secrets at the bratling’s skillful information-extraction, why the hell didn’t Yanagi want to go?

“Don’t you have other business to secure? People get nervous when the Spider is around, but doubly so when his presence is invisible.” said Yanagi, coolly, as he brushed past Niou’s figure, with a stiffness that seemed to mirror Yanagi’s initial chill.

Niou watched the retreating back of Yanagi into the oppressive darkness of the house and ran his fingers through his rattail, speculatively. “Something big’s got you uptight, master.” he murmured, as he swiveled out of the kitchen. “And I’m gonna find out what.” Maybe it was about time he made a visit up to Yukimura’s main headquarters and dragged Yagyuu out of those labs of his.


End file.
